Good morning, everybody. If you'd
like to turn to Psalm 127. Psalm 127. Let's begin by reading the psalm,
starting with verse one there. If you have a Bible like mine,
The pre-notations are listed under the chapter verse there.
That's inspired. That's part of the original version there.
So we'll read there that as well. It says, a song of degrees for
Solomon. Except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the
city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to
rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows,
for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage
of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows
are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall
not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the
gate. Now as far as the origins of
this song goes, it says it's a song of degrees for Solomon,
and that can mean one of two things. It can either be that
it was written by Solomon himself, or it was written by David, his
father, for Solomon, for instruction. And I think the latter is probably
the correct interpretation. This is probably written by David
for his son Solomon, and I don't think we have to guess too much
about when he wrote it. If you're familiar with 2 Samuel
chapter 7 and what happens in that chapter, David's sitting
in his house, he's comfortable, the Lord has vanquished all his
enemies, and he said, I'm sitting in this house made of cedar,
this big beautiful palace, and the Lord's still dwelling in
a tent, in a tabernacle. And he says, I wanna build a
house for the Lord. Nathan, he doesn't even ask the
Lord whether that's a good idea or not, he just says, go, the
Lord's in it, do what's in your heart. And the Lord goes to Nathan
and he says, hold on a second, Did I tell David to build me
a house? Now there's a soft rebuke in what the Lord tells David
through Nathan and all that. And it's a soft rebuke because
what David is doing there is he is pitying the Lord. I have
this big, beautiful house and poor him, he's out there in the
tabernacle and the tent. And folks, our Lord is no one
to be pitied. And he tells David later on, he goes, David, you
don't build me a house. You don't do anything for me,
David, but I'm gonna build you a house. Your son, Solomon, and
he's speaking of Solomon as a type of Christ, he's going to build
my house. He goes, you can't do it, David. You're a bloody
man. You're a man of war. Speaking of the natural man.
At war with God, blood on his hands, the death of God's only
son. He says, you can't build my house.
But Solomon, names means peace, the prince of peace, he's going
to build my house. You can't build me a house, David,
but I'm going to build you one. And I believe that's exactly
where this psalm comes from after David receives that instruction
from the Lord. I think if we're gonna begin
here, what we need to understand is this. What does the psalmist
mean by the house? He says, unless the Lord build
the house, the laborers labor in vain. And he speaks of several
objects. Talks about a house. He talks about a city. He talks
about children. He talks about arrows and the
hand of a mighty man and in the quiver of a mighty man and all
those different objects are all talking about one thing, just
one thing. Turn over Hebrews chapter three.
Let's find out what it is. Hebrews chapter three and look
at verse one. The writer says, wherefore, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle
and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who is faithful
to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all
his house. For this man was counted worthy
of more glory than Moses inasmuch as he who hath builded the house
hath more honor than the house. For every house is built by some
man, but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was
faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of
those things which are to be spoken after. But Christ as a
son over his own house, listen to this, whose house are we if
we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope from
unto the end? That house he's talking about
there, whose house are we? That's the elect. Those God chose
before the foundations of the world to be united to the Lord
Jesus Christ, chosen unto salvation. That's the house that the psalmist
is talking about. And everything in that story,
the arrows, the children, the city, it all speaks of the elect. It all speaks of God's people. And I'm thankful for this because
in verse six here, it gives us a marker to know whether we are
in that house or not. This house is not for everyone.
Not everyone is a part of this house, but it's a blessing to
be a part of this house. So let's find out real quick.
Look at verse six again. But Christ is a son over his own
house, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and
the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. What is the hope
of everybody in this house? Verse one in Psalm 127. Go back
there real quick. Let's read it again. The psalmist says, except the
Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it, except
the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh. but in vain." Now, this
is the hope of everybody who's a part of this house, is that
the Lord builds the house, that he does all the work in making
the house acceptable for his father. And not just building
the house, not just making them acceptable, but keeping the house.
keeping the house acceptable all the way to the end, and they're
not looking to themselves for anything. I was thinking about
this in reference to a house when Solomon actually did build
the temple later on. When they were building the temple,
they'd take the stones that they were using for the interior,
and they would carve the stones outside the temple, and then
they would bring them in and put them in their place. And
the reason they did that was so that not even the sound of work
was found in the temple. There wasn't even the sound of
any labor going on in the temple. Why? Because salvation is all
of grace for this house and not of works at all. The Lord builds
the house and the Lord keeps the house. Every aspect of building
this house and keeping the house, the Lord does. Now let's read
about that a little bit. Turn to Ephesians chapter two.
This is familiar. I'm sure y'all are very familiar
with this chapter. But Ephesians chapter two and
look at verse four. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved. Now here's the reason right here
that the Lord built the house. This is why he elected, he chose
the elect, love. He loved the house. He loved
his people, therefore he elected them, he gave them to Christ
that they would be saved. But I think what's most beautiful
about this is when he loved us. When did he love the house? When
we were dead in sins. Not when we turned things around,
not when we started loving Him, not when we started doing right
and stopped doing wrong, not at all. When did He love us?
When we were dead in trespasses and sins. Now this is the way
human love works. No love is unconditional. This
is how human love works. If you make yourself lovable,
I will love you. That is not how the love of God
works. It's still conditional, but this
is how it works. He says, I love you. Now I want
to make you lovable. And he does all the work in making
you that lovable figure to him. Now look at verse six. and hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now that's where all the love
of God is found right there. Understand this, the love of
God is found in one place, it is found in Christ. God preeminently
loves one man, that's it. He loves the Lord Jesus Christ
and everybody who's in him, who shares that eternal union, he
loves them with that same everlasting love. Verse seven. that in the
ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Now here's the
purpose of the house. This is what the house is going
to do. We're gonna be trophies. First, trophies of his power
and his glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is gonna
be able to sit on his throne and he's gonna look at his house,
his people. He's gonna say, this is how powerful
I am. I was able to save them all by myself. They didn't do
a thing. I did every single bit of it.
They were the lowest of the low, but look what I made them. Look,
they're all shimmering. They're all beautiful. They're all perfect.
Trophies of his power and his glory were also going to be trophies
of his grace. Not only was he capable of taking
the lowest of the low and making them acceptable before his father,
he was willing to do it. This is the scripture I thought
of, it's Romans 5, 7 and 8. It says, for scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die, but God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For a good man, some would even
dare to die, but for a nobody, for somebody who hates you, would
you die for him? Sure wouldn't, but Christ did. That's exactly
who he died for. Look at verse eight. This is the sum and substance
of the entire chapter. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. That's the best news for a sinner
right there. Salvation, it's all of grace, and it's not of
works in any single way. Every aspect of it, everything
we have, everything we are, we have it by grace. It's all free. To a sinner, it's absolutely
free. Nothing prohibits you from having it because it's completely
unconditional on your behalf. It's all conditioned on the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Now, look at verse 10. It says, for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. Now, I think that verse
needs some explanation. I think we need to dig into that
just a little bit. To understand what this is talking
about, this thing of created in Christ Jesus unto good works. If we're gonna understand that,
we have to hone in on this one word, and that's created. What was
created in the believer? What does the Lord create in
the believer? He creates a new heart. He creates a new man. He creates a divine nature, the
very nature of God living in a man. And that man, he's perfect.
He does that which is always right. He never does that which
is wrong. He always believes God. He never disobeys God in
any way, shape, or form. That man dwells in every single
believer. But here's the problem. Paul
says this in Romans 7. He says, I find then a law that
when I would do good, Evil is present with me. And that's the
experience of every believer. That new man, he always does
that which is good. But here's the problem, that
old man, that man who hates God, That man who sins against God
and can do nothing else, that man who never believes, he's
still there. And he's not going anywhere, not to the day we die.
And in every action every believer takes, it is done by two separate
men, and that singular action comes through one consciousness.
So in every work you have the new man and you have the old,
and that old man taints every single thing we do. It's all
sin because he's still there. And that's why Paul says this
in Romans 7.24, he ends the whole chapter with this, oh wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I would point out, he did not
say, oh wretched man that I used to be. Oh wretched man that I am presently. And we're gonna be that way until
we die and we lay down this old man. But I wanna leave with some
encouragement here. That old man is purposeful. He's
absolutely purposeful. This is what Genesis 25 talks
about. Rebecca, she had two sons inside of her. She had Jacob
and Esau. She went to the Lord and she
said, there's a war going on between these two boys inside of me.
If I am thus, why am I thus? Why am I being this way? He said,
you have two manner of men and two nations in yourself. And
that's with every believer. You have two nations, you have
two men inside of you, and they're constantly at war. But the Lord
told her this. He says, the elder, he's going
to serve the younger. Now between the two natures,
which one's older? The old man. He's been with us
longer. He's been with us since birth. Who's the younger? That's
the new man in Christ Jesus. And that elder, that old nature,
it serves that new nature. You know how it serves us? It
gives us absolutely nowhere to look but to Christ alone. That's
it. I'm not going to be able to look
to my works. I'm not going to be able to look to your works. I'm not going
to be able to look anywhere else and find any confidence or any
hope but just looking to Christ alone. That's it. That is the
purpose of that old man. Everything the Lord does is good.
Everything he does is purposeful. It's all for our good. Now, how did the Lord build the
house? How did he build the family? I don't know a better way of
saying this, but this is how I'm gonna say it. He built the
house by putting the house in the house. Here's a scripture,
hopefully sum that up. Colossians 2, six and seven.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
ye in him, rooted, built up in him. Now, how did the Lord save
his house, his elect, his heritage? He put him in the one place of
absolute safety, the house of Christ Jesus. Now, when you build
a house, where do you begin? Now, I'm gonna tell you guys,
I'm speaking from secondhand information. I've never built
a house before. Some of you have. So, where do you begin when you
build a house? Well, first you have to begin with purpose. That's
where you begin. As far as I know, I've never
known of any man who accidentally built a house. Didn't stumble
around and all of a sudden a house pop up. If a man's gonna build
a house, he builds it on purpose. Go back to your text real quick.
I want you to look at verse four. As arrows are in the hand of
a mighty man, so children of the youth. Now, the father saved
his house. Christ saved his house on purpose,
and this is how he did it. He gave those arrows, his elect,
his people, to the hand of a mighty man, and that mighty man is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He put those arrows in the hand
of that mighty man, that man who could not fail. It was impossible
for him to fail, and he gave him this order. These arrows,
these my people, here's what I want you to do. I want you
to make them just like you. I want you to conform them to
your image. Now you think of what an archer
does. A mighty man, an expert man with a bow, what does he
do? He pulls back that arrow and he picks a target, a predetermined
point. And if he's an expert man, if
he's a mighty man, once he releases, that arrow goes exactly where
he intended it to go. That's predestination right there.
Predestination always deals with being conformed to the image
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The elect were handed to Christ,
that expert man, that man that could not fail. He picked that
predetermined point, which was himself, and he fired off. And
here's what Jeremiah says. He has very similar language.
He says, their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man. None
shall return in vain. You see this man in whose hands
the arrows were put? He can't miss. It's impossible.
If you want the New Testament version of that, it's John 6,
39. And this is the Father's will, which has sent me, that
of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. Everybody the Father gave
him, they hit the mark, because he fired them off. Now what else is involved in
building a house? You must have brilliant planning and design. Job asked this question in Job
9.2. He said, how should man be just with God? It's a great
question because those are the two demands of God. In the covenant
of grace, the father had two demands. He says, you're going
to save them. You're going to save them all
by yourself, but you have to do it in honoring my character.
In two demands, he had to be just and he had to be merciful. Both those aspects of his character
had to be honored. This is a great question. How
can a sinful man be just with God? The answer was the Lord
Jesus Christ and his cross. In verse four again, it says,
as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children
of the youth. The first time I visualized that,
I visualized that as arrows being held in the hand of a mighty
man. I invite you to visualize it another way. Arrows in the
hand of a mighty man. The cross is where justice and
mercy actually came together. The arrows pierced his hand.
The Lord Jesus Christ became the sins of his people. The wrath
of God came down upon him. And when he died, he swallowed
up all that wrath and put all that sin away so that God could
be just in dealing with his people and justify them and deal with
them in absolute and total mercy. This is impossible in the human
realm. In the human realm, it is impossible to do justice and
be merciful. If we try to do both, one or
the other is gonna suffer. We can take a man, he's guilty,
we can bring him in and we can punish him completely. And if
we do that, we can't show him any mercy. And we can bring in
a guilty man and we can show him mercy and not punish him.
And then justice is the one that suffers. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
in him, for all the elect, both the mans were met. Complete justice
and complete mercy for all God's people. Because the arrow has
pierced his hands. Now, what else do you need for
a house? You need a foundation. 2 Timothy
2, 19 says, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. Christ is the foundation of God.
He's the foundation on which that house is built, His elect,
His people, and as long as that foundation stands sure, as long
as that foundation, Christ, has acceptance with His Father, As
long as he is holy and he is unblameable and he is pleasing
to his father, that house that is built on that foundation,
it's going to stand just the same. And that foundation cannot
be shaken. It cannot change. That foundation
is immutable. But Christ, he is also the foundation
of our doctrine. There's only one doctrine. There
is a doctrine of Christ. That's it. Now turn over to Hebrews
chapter one. I'm sorry, Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6 verse 1 says, therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Now this
is very important. Whenever in the scriptures you
see the word doctrines, plural, it's always talking about the
false. When you see that singular word, doctrine, it's talking
about the truth. This is the doctrine of Christ. Therefore, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not
laying in the foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith toward
God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and
of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment, and
this will we do if God permit. Now if he says, not laying again,
when he says that, does he say we just need to move on from
this? We have all these foundational principles, we've preached them,
now we just need to move on. Build the structure after that.
No, that's not what he's saying at all. He's saying leave them
alone. Stop digging up the foundation. Stop trying to recreate the foundation.
Rest in them. Rest in these foundational truths. This is the substance of everything
we believe. First, repentance from dead works. If you're a
believer, you've had your mind changed about your works. They're
dead works. What's a dead work? It's a work
that can't produce life. Nothing I can do. There's absolutely
nothing I can bring before God that he would accept. Everything
that comes from me, it's a dead work. It can't produce life.
And everybody who's brought to the repentance of dead works,
they have the other side of the coin as well. Faith toward God. When the Lord removes your hope
in yourself, he gives you a hope in Christ Jesus alone, that's
it. Then we have the doctrine of baptisms, that's union with
Christ. That's everything represents
in baptism right here, when we stand above the water. Our hope
is this, when the Lord Jesus Christ lived and he honored his
father perfectly, and he honored the law perfectly, that's when
I lived. When he died, my hope is I died in him. My sins were
in him. When he said it was finished,
he put away my sins. He swallowed up God's wrath on
my behalf. And when he was raised from the dead, I was raised from
the dead in him, incorruptible. The doctrine of baptisms. Then
we've got the laying on of hands. You remember the scapegoat from
Leviticus 16. The high priest would bring in
the first goat. He would kill that one goat. He would take
the second goat, He would lay His hands on that goat, and He
would confess all the sins and the iniquity of Israel over that.
Then He would hand that goat off to the hand of a fit man,
and that fit man would take that goat off to the wilderness, to
a place that was uninhabited, never to be seen again. That's
the imputation of sin. What's our hope? The Lord Jesus
Christ was made my sin. He was slaughtered for my sin.
He bore the burden. He bore the punishment. And now
my sin, it's taken to a land that is uninhabited. It was taken
by the hand of a fit man, Christ himself, and it's gone. Absolutely
gone. Resurrection from the dead. What
does the resurrection teach us? What does it signify? Signifies
this, that Christ was absolutely successful in what he did. Because
if he would have failed to put away one of the sins of one of
the people he died for, he would remain dead. But because he put
away all the sins and he completely satisfied God, God raised him
from the dead. It was only just. And then eternal
judgment. Everything God does, he's always
done, and it's all eternal. He has a people from the foundation
of the world. He loved those people from the foundation of
the world. Christ died from those people from the foundation of
the world. He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Everything God does, He does eternally. And that is the substance
of everything we believe right there. That is the foundation
of all of it. I want to change the illustration
for just a moment. We've been talking about the house, the
elect. I want to talk about the house, Christ. Fundamentally,
what is a house? What is a home? Well, number
one, it is a place of shelter and safety. Go back to your text
real quick in Psalm 127. In verse four, it talks about
arrows, the elect being in the hand of a mighty man. Then verse
5 adds this tidbit. It says, happy is the man that
hath his quiver full of them. Now that idea of arrows in the
quiver, that's talking about the elect being hidden in Christ. And I'll give you the evidence
of that. This is Isaiah 49.2. It says, and he hath made my
mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand hath
he hid me, and made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hid
me. Now, we're hidden Christ. And
this is a beautiful thought. And every time I think of this
idea of being hid in Christ, I think of the Passover. Night
of the Passover, all the firstborn of every house of Egypt, they
were dying. It was just death outside the house. All that mattered,
this was the one thing, you were either in the house with the
blood over the door or you weren't. God was looking for one thing,
he was looking for blood. And this is a beautiful thing
for everybody who's a part of this house, everyone who's looking
to Christ alone, we're in the house. And that means the wrath
of God is never going to touch us because it's already touched
him. And verse five gives us this last interesting statement.
It says, they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the
enemies in the gate. And if you wanna know what that
literally means, it literally means they're gonna be able to
stand in court and face their accusers, and their accusers
will have absolutely no basis to accuse them because this hiding
place, it's so much more than just a hiding place. Now we do,
we hide in Christ. We hid in Christ, the wrath of
God fell on him. But understand this, this is
true justification. The work of Christ on our behalf
and in us makes us so we can stand before our accusers. We
can stand in court, the light of God's holy justice from the
look of sober, and he sees a man that does not deserve punishment
because there's nothing there to punish him for. That's the
truth of justification and that is actually what happened on
that cross. Right now, if you're looking
to the house, you're in the house, you're looking to Christ alone,
understand this, you can stand in the light of the holiness
of God and you have absolutely no sin and you have absolutely
nothing to worry about. What is a house? place of peace
and rest. It's where you go to relax. Look
at verse 2 of your text. It says, It is vain for you to
rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows,
for so he giveth his beloved Sleep. I love that. For those
he loves, the command is not to go and do. It's not to rise
up early and go to work. It is not to stay up late and
worry. It's not to eat the bread of sorrows. He gives his beloved
sleep. He gives him rest. What is the
command? Trust Christ. Rest in him. In this house, there
is nothing but peace and rest. Hebrews 4.3, for we which have
believed do enter into rest. As he said, as I have sworn in
my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. Why can we enter
into rest? Because there's nothing to do.
Christ did it all. All the works have been finished
from the foundation of the world. Now, we just rest in the house.
That's it. We rest, we relax, and we trust
him. That's it. There's another way we can look
at this, though. What resting in this world? He says this,
he goes, it is vain for you to rise up early. Why does somebody
rise up early? Anxiety. He says it's vain for
you to stay up late. Why does somebody stay up late?
Worrying. He says it's vain for you to
eat the bread of sorrows, worried about what's going to happen
tomorrow and trembling about what tomorrow might hold. And I understand
that. I understand it really, really
well. But for us folks, for us in the house, it's baseless.
It's absolutely baseless. It's vain. Listen to this. Luke
12, verse 29, it says, And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or
what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind, for all
these things do the nations of the world seek after. And your
Father knoweth that you have need of these things, but rather
seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added
to you. Tomorrow's gonna take care of itself. And tomorrow
morning's gonna take care of itself. And things get dark,
I recognize that. Right there, just rest. He gives
his beloved sleep. No rising up early, no staying
up late. The Lord's in control, and he does that, only that which
is good for his people. Now, house. House is where all
your possessions are kept. I don't know about you, but if
you want to know where my stuff is, it's in my house. It's where
I keep my stuff. Paul says this. It's an interesting commentary.
He speaks as a representative of every believer. 2 Corinthians
6, verse 9. Speaks of himself, he says, as
unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live, as
chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing,
as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing
all things. And I can't think of a better
description of the believer than that right there, having absolutely
nothing in and of myself. Having nothing, there's nothing
I can bring before God he'd be pleased with. Having nothing,
but yet possessing all the things. They're all in the house. What
do I have in Christ? I have real righteousness, real.
I've got holiness in Christ. I've got acceptance with God.
I have boldness of access. I have free grace. I have all
that in Christ. It's all found in the house,
and I'm in the house, so it's mine. Those are my possessions.
I have them, and that's real. House is a place where you eat.
Turn to this one, you'll like this. Turn to Isaiah 66. Now we feed off the precious
promises of our Lord Jesus Christ daily. He's our sustenance. He's
our food. But this is a particular promise.
It's in reference to this thing of a house. I think you'll enjoy
this. Isaiah 66, and we'll look at verse one. Thus saith the
Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house that you build unto me? What can you build that
would possibly contain me? And where is the place of my
rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those
things have been, saith the Lord. Listen to this, this is the promise,
the promise you can feed off of. But to this man will I look. I'll look to this man in mercy,
in grace, and with favor, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Who's this house
open to? Who can come inside this house?
Who's welcome inside this house? These people right here. He was
poor. He's a mercy beggar before God.
He's got nothing to bring. He's of a contrite spirit. You
know what that means? It means lame. Just like Mephibosheth
in 2 Samuel 9. You remember Mephibosheth? David
said, go fetch him. Why? Because Mephibosheth couldn't
do anything for David. He couldn't come to David. And
David had to do everything for him. And you know what? If that's
your case, door's wide open to you. Go fetch him. Poor, contrite
of spirit. and he trembles at my word. And
that's the fear of God. And preeminently, more than anything
else, what that means is this, you are afraid to look anywhere
but Christ alone. And folks, if that's you, poor,
lame, afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone, the door is
wide open to you. The house is wide open. The welcome
mat is right there. Come on in. Christ is for you. A house is a place where you
bathe, Psalm 51 verse 2, David says this, he says, wash me throughly
from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Now he uses two
words there to describe the same action, cleanse and wash, and
they have particular meanings. That thing of cleanse, what that
means is once and done. It means bright and shining and
pure. This is the effect of the cross.
Everybody Christ died for was made pure. They were cleansed,
cleansed of all sin, gone. But here's the thing. As we walk
through this world, our feet get dirty, don't they? I sinned
yesterday, I'm sinning today. Unfortunately, I'm gonna sin
tomorrow. That's where this word wash comes in. We go home. We
go to the house, and daily, because the blood of Christ is always
new, it's always fresh before the Father, we bathe in his blood. And there was mercy for yesterday,
there's mercy for today, and there's gonna be mercy tomorrow,
because his blood is ever fresh, it's ever new. We're washed,
perpetually washed, every single day, that mercy will never depart
from us. Finally, a house is a place of
great expense. Look at verse three of your text. Lo, children are an heritage
of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Now, if you want to know what
that means, what it's saying is this, that the elect are the
Lord's inheritance. It's his heritage. But that cost
him something. It cost him the fruit of the
womb, that's Christ. The fruit of the womb is his
reward, that means his payment. Something had to be paid that
he could have this inheritance. He had to give up his only begotten
son for a time. You think of the love the father had for his
people that he was willing to sacrifice his son. The love that
the son had for his people, for the inheritance that he was willing
to sacrifice himself for you, for you. What amazing love. Now, it cost, just like a house
is probably the most expensive thing anybody in this room is
going to buy, salvation for the elect. It cost the father and
the son everything. It came to them at great expense.
But for the sinner, for somebody who's poor, who's lame, and who
trembles at his word, I want you to recognize, folks, it is
absolutely free. Revelation 22, 17 says this,
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. There's only one prerequisite
there, that's it. You have to take it freely, that's
it. The only way you'll be rejected
in coming to Christ is if you bring something to buy with,
that's it. If you lay a dollar on that table and say, I've got
something here, I've got something, I'm going to pay you something
for this, you exclude yourself. You're on your own. But if you
come with absolutely nothing and you take it just freely,
it's yours. That's the only prerequisite. Grace has got to be free. That's
it. Let's conclude this. Look over
Matthew chapter 7. Look at verse 24. This is the Lord speaking. He
says, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth
them, I will liken him unto a wise man who had built his house upon
a rock. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and
it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And that rock's
Christ. And everyone that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a
foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. Now, two
men are proposed here. Two ways of coming are represented. One, a man who builds his house
upon the rock. This is the man who builds his
house upon the rock. He looks to the rock. That strong
foundation, that foundation of Christ and him crucified alone,
you build your house there. And here's how you build your
house. You don't build a thing. You just stand on the rock and
you just rest in that rock and you trust that rock. That's it.
That's a wise man right there. The other man did this. He built
his house on the sand. What sand? That which can be
moved. That sand's our works. Man approaching
unto God based on something he did. And folks, that sand, and
when the waters come, that will be washed away. Be the wise man. Come build your house upon that
rock, Christ Jesus. I'm gonna leave you there.